What is therapeutic cloning? Therapeutic cloning is cloning for research purposes. The cloning procedure is called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). A somatic cell is any cell in the body except the egg or sperm cells, or their precursors. Skin cells, blood cells, brain cells are all somatic cells. Every somatic cell has all of the chromosomes (DNA), unique to each individual, in its nucleus. In SCNT, one takes an egg from a female donor, removes the nucleus, and inserts the somatic cell nucleus with its DNA into the "empty" egg. More simply, SCNT is the transfer of the nucleus from a somatic cell to the egg. The egg is impregnated with all 46 chromosomes of an already existing genome and then "tricked" into thinking it has been fertilized. The fertilized egg begins to divide and a clone is created. In therapeutic cloning,...

Asexual reproduction or cloning The term "cloning" has been used in biotechnology for a long time and refers to more than one kind of procedure. The cloning procedure most in debate in the scientific world is called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). A somatic cell is any cell in the body except the egg or sperm cells, or their precursors. Skin cells, blood cells, brain cells are all somatic cells. Every somatic cell contains, in its nucleus, all of the chromosomes (DNA) unique to each individual. In SCNT, a technician takes an egg from a female donor, removes the nucleus, and inserts the somatic cell nucleus with its DNA into the "empty" egg. SCNT is the transfer of the nucleus of a somatic cell to the egg. - Through SCNT, an embryo is created by...